PREFACE. 



of children only, who live in remote haunts j the latter retain a 

 certain faith in their efficacy, handed down in traditionary 

 recitals and hereditary receipts that a peculiar race have 

 preserved. The race constitutes our herbalists : the blacksmith 

 in out-of-the-way places, — the herd in upland farms, — the skil- 

 ful woman of the village, — the gipsey wife, — and the mugger who 

 sells nostrums and fortunes with her wares. Their "simples" 

 I have indicated; and it is possible that the virtue ascribed which 

 descends from a very remote period, — from at least early monastic 

 times, — may have a reality that merits regard. Burnt sponge 

 was cast out of our Dispensatories, wherein it had been placed 

 from the vulgar fame of an efficacy which Science discredited 

 and ridiculed; but now a nicer science restores with honour, and 

 confirms the medicine. — And then again I lent my pen willingly 

 to record the sayings and the customs, — the little plays and 

 incidents associated with these natural productions, and more 

 especially with our plants, as they passed under review. I 

 cannot put away childish things and memories, nor do I envy 

 the man who can and doth. There is a tenacity in the love of 

 our early years, and to the haunts of our childhood, — and in the 

 retrospect of them, — which, to loosen and untie, would wound 

 what would seem to be an inherent virtue of humanity ; and 

 which it doth us all good to nurture with genial warmth. 

 Goethe has said, with reference to some such opinion, that 

 " plants and flowers of the commonest kind may form a charm- 

 ing diary for us, because nothing that calls back the remembrance 

 of a happy moment can be insignificant ; and even now," he 

 adds, " it would be hard for me to destroy, as worthless, many 

 things of the kind that have remained to me from different 

 epochs, because they transport me immediately to those times 

 which I remember with melancholy indeed, but not unwilhngly." 

 Keeping these particulars in view, I have, however, yielded to 

 almost every temptation that crossed my path ; and I have 

 strayed to cull a flower, or a weed, whenever it seemed to me that 

 either would grace, or give variety to my collection, which has been 

 thus rendered a miscellany of dubious and unstudied character. 

 In particular, I have attempted to portray some features which 

 the district derives from the grouping of its organic creations in 



